I’m a party planner and don’t have but a scratch of surface knowledge of Star Wars… I was hired to put together a child’s 6th birthday party with an adult room – Star Wars Theme. I have lots of ideas … but having trouble organizing them so that they make sense. I was hoping you could help. Please give me any ideas you think are an absolute must…. but also help me to locate the best “scene to recreate” for 4 party rooms… one bar scene, one training scene, one food scene, and one epic scene. My hopes is that the Adult Room would be similar and serve similar drinks to that of the Tatooine Bar Scene?? the Activity Room would resemble that of the Padawan or Jedi training scene?? The Epic Scene would create an entry way and general decor of the party house and that the food table would be set in a scene that included a banquet or food scene from the movie… Any help is more than welcome. The child happens to also be my Godson and I really wan the party to be awesome! Thanks so much. Glad I found you blog. — Amy
Hi, Amy, glad to hear from you! And I hope I can help you out with your ideas. You may have seen my earlier post, Party Planner, where I outline some ideas I have for upcoming Star Wars Parties and also link to some other blog entries I’ve done on Star Wars parties I’ve had with friends in the past. There’s also some other resources there from blogs I’m not affiliated with. I also collect ideas rigorously on my Pinterest board Star Wars parties — make sure to check it out! There are a lot of cake ideas there. I’m not going to go into cake in this post, first of all because people usually have ideas for that first, and also I’ve also done a few posts in the past about cakes. Other resources — Clean & Scentsible has a post all about the kinds of food and activities she did for a 6-year-old’s Star Wars party, so I’ll direct you to that as well (here). That includes invitations, printables for food labels and gift tags, and some food and decor ideas.
Love this idea! — Clean & Scentsible
You’re in luck with the children’s party because most Star Wars parties are geared for children. (I’ve never understood why because I think these movies are too adult for little kids.) Because it’s so easy to do the children’s party angle of things, I’ll concentrate a little more on the adult side of the party and also on your desire to make it into a cohesive whole. One of my favorite party ideas ever comes from At Second Street (here): she used black vinyl tablecloths from the dollar store to cover windows and doors and painted stars on them to look like space outside.
I regard this as brilliant — At Second Street
I think this really helps set the atmosphere and the tone. Something I’ve done for every Star Wars party I’ve had is gotten everyone involved to bring a variety of their own Star Wars collection for decoration: toys, trading cards, posters, action figures.
Star Wars fans love toys. This is scientific fact.
I love your idea of dividing it by room. Theme parties, in my opinion, can only be improved by adding more and more themes to them. I would suggest for the entryway imitating the classic “scroll” that kicks off each movie; this would be pretty easy with the blacked out windows/doors I link to from At Second Street, and having a big poster with a “scrolling text” intro of your own to the party . . . “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, partygoers assembled to celebrate the best birthday around,” etc., something like that. I’d also break out any cardboard standups anyone happens to have for this part (or you can get them for 25-35 from Amazon).
For the adult’s area, doing the Mos Eisley Cantina is a great idea, I think, though a challenge to decorate. Fun fact: the cantina is actually called Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina.
A wretched hive of scum and villainy
There is a certain Middle Eastern flair to the Cantina — check out the tile, hookahs, and silver bowls of dates! Try making your own glow lamps (seen on the tables) using this tutorial from Gluesicks (here). A Cantina must is kickin’ tunes — the A New Hope soundtrack includes “Cantina Band” and “Cantina Band #2,” and the Return of the Jedi soundtrack has other songs for ambiance including “Source Music: Jabba’s Baroque Recital” (very quiet, good for background filler) and “Jedi Rocks,” the dance number from Jabba’s throne room. Amazon has some Star Wars party music tracks that include the original dance number from Jabba’s palace as well as the disco version of the Star Wars Main Theme.
You should be cautious.
Another bar suggestion would be the Outlander Club seen in Attack of the Clones.
Anthony Daniels’ Outlander Club Cameo
The setting here is a bit more sophisticated and less rugged. Modern clubs would be more of an inspiration for this one than, say, Moroccan and rugged influence for the cantina. There’s also a sports bar atmosphere to the Outlander Club, so Star Wars “sports” posters could help — things like podracing and smashball.
Food is hard in the Star Wars universe because characters just don’t eat that much. You could use Dex’s Diner for the dining room, but if you want to focus on a banquet or celebratory location, you could go for the Throne Room at the end of A New Hope.
Celebration on Yavin IV
Of course, the finale room here is both easy and hard. All you need is to give a sense of space and some greenery.
- Our heroes assemble
The party pinboard I linked to up there contains a lot of great ideas for food and drinks, and one think you can always do is have on hand the sort of drinks you would anyway and print Star Wars labels for them — “Corellian ale,” “Tatooine sunrise,” “Coruscant coffee.” You can be pretty creative with the names — anything with a dark tint can be “Sith,” “Emperor,” “Darth,” and if it’s light-colored, “Jedi” or “Rebel” will work just fine. For the kids, a drink mentioned in the films are “Jawa Juice” — most people just use punch — and there’s always “Yoda Soda” — my favorite recipe for which is 7-Up with lime sherbert. Mmm. Here’s a link with some more food ideas including Yoda Soda (here).
Jedi Training is a great theme for kids, especially with all the Jedi training games that are out there. Here’s the youngling training room as seen in Attack of the Clones.
Yoda and the Younglings
Jedi Temple scenes mostly convey space, greenery, and clean bright areas, sort of like a more interesting version of a yoga studio. The pool noodle lightsabers I linked to earlier are brilliant, and kids can have the fun of making their own lightsabers before moving on to “training exercises.” At Second Street includes how to make a quick youngling robe, and I’d think those helmets would be easy to mock up with cheap plastic mixing bowls and a little spray paint.
Erikstormtrooper’s Engli-Besh font
As a final resource, if you want to give invites or printouts some extra flair, consider using Erikstromtrooper’s brilliant “Engli-Besh” font available free (here). “Aurebesh” is the alphabet seen in the movies, but it’s not English and so only your most hardcore guests could understand signs written in it! Engli-Besh gives a Star Wars flair to the everyday alphabet. Also vital for general signage is the “classic” Star Wars font, available from FontSpace (here). Both of these font sites are 100% safe; I download from them myself.
I notice I spent most of this post skipping back and forth between A New Hope and Attack of the Clones, when there are really six films to choose from. However, I think the visuals in these two suit your needs the best. I hope the resources I’ve provided for you will be inspirational; just remember that Star Wars fans are usually pretty easy to please. Just be imaginative and remember, for Jedi’s sake!, not to accidentally bring in a Star Trek reference! :) May the Force be with you and your godson’s party — and I’d love to see some pictures of what you come up with!
